Coupon ticket



April 20 1926. 1,581,339

H. C. FOX

COUPON TICKET- Filed July 50, 1925 INVENTOR. flax-r C Fox Patented Apr. 20, 1926. Y

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY 0. FOX, on NEW Yonx, N. Y.

COUPON TICKET.

Application filed Ju1 30, 1925. Serial No. 46,948.

To all whom it may concern: 7 Be it known that I, HARRY G. Fox, a citlzen of the United: States, residing at New York city, county and State of New York, 5 have invented a certain new 7 and useful. Coupon Ticket, of which the following a specification.

This invention is a coupon ticket for use in theatres, concert halls and the like where- 10 in reserve seats are sold. It is the common practice in places of this character to employ tickets comprising a stub having a coupon attached to one end thereof and both the stub and coupon contain the name 16 of .the amusement place, the date, and the seatnumber. The entire ticket is sold to the patron, and, when presented at the door for admission, a doorman tears ofi' the stub, deposits it in a box, and returns the coupon to the patron, who thereafter retains 1t. The doormans box is subsequently turned over to the treasurer oraccounting department and checked with the cash receipts from the box oflice. At the same time, the report, required by law, is prepared and the federal tax return laced thereon.

The foregoing proce ure 1s universally employed wherever reserve seats are sold, but it has long been recognized that this system is faulty in that unscrupulous em- .ployees, acting in collusion, can very easily anddo in fact manipulate the handling of the coupons and cash receipts from the box ofiice in such manner as to annually mulct theatre owners, producers and the govern ment out of hundreds of thousands, of dollars. It is the practice of theatrical managers to constantly employ acorps of detectives and to audit the ticket sales with great care, yet'even with these precautions, it is practically impossible to preclude manipulation of tickets under the present system. Heretofore there has been no satisfactory method whereby accurate accounting can be secured at all times and the primary object of this invention is to provide means to enable accurate accounting at all times and permit of an absolute check up of the receipts and number of patrons and thus preventing collusion between employees and consequent defrauding of the management. .7 c The ticket of thisinvention" embodies three distinct portions or sections, namely, a stub 55 I and two coupons arranged in succession; that is to say, a stub with a coupon attached to one end thereof and a second coupon attached to the end of the first. The coupons and stubs are of the same width and are connected to one another at lines of scoring to render the parts readily detachable.

The patron receives from the box office, when paying for his seat, the entire ticket, and upon entering the theatre hands the whole ticket to the doorman. Thedoorman tears off the stub and drops it in the box and returns thetwo coupons still attached 7 to oneanoth-er t0 the patron, who, in turn, hands the assembled coupons to an usher. The usher separates the coupons, retains one and returns the other to the patron who,

thereafter retains it. The coupon taken by the usher is placed by him in a little box provided for this purpose and for which the usher is responsible and which is inaccessible to anyone except the usher. At a subsequent time, the ushers boxes are mailed by v,

the usher, or sent to theowner, who may reside in another city, as'is the case when an owner controls a chain of theatres. This additional coupon enables him to have a complete and distinct record of all tickets sold, which thehouse staff and housetreasurer, have no access to. y v i The usual procedure is to take the doormans boxes to the box oflice where the 1 tickets are counted by the treasurer and company manager, which enables them to make any false statement agreed upon, as the owner accepts thestatement signed by the company manager, and house treasurer,

and has no other record. But the ticket wlth two coupons on one end gives theowner an additional record, and when 'compared with the unsold tickets, which thetreasurer is not obliged to send in, (and which were usually destroyed) makes a completeand accurate checkup.

It also enables the owner to know just how the people are seated, which is very desirable, when the attendance is small, the object being to scatter the people around and make the audience seem larger.

This ticket also prevents the house or company managers from passing people by the door without tickets, and seating them in unsold seats; a practice which is carried on in many theatres today but, asthe usher is responsible for each seat occupied, this would be impossible.

This method of check up obviously precludes a duplicate set of tickets being used. 7

. pons.

When it is borne in mind that in practically all theatres, there are at least several ushers, none of whom have any definite assurance of what patrons they will seat, that collusion in the manipulation of tickets is absolutely impossible and that an accurate check up can be made.

An important feature'of the invention resides in the structural peculiarities of the ticket, namely, the fact that both the patrons and ushers coupons are attached to the same end of the stub in succession, are of the same width as the stub and are not valid unless attached to one another. This arrangement makes the construction practical and unless this arrangement were employed, it would not be practical for reserve seat houses. I

It has heretofore been suggested in moving picture houses to employ strip tickets wherein a plurality of coupons were attached'to a stub portion at one side thereof, so that when the tickets were fed from the reel the tearing off of the stub from the strip would simultaneously remove the coupons, but While this arrangement could be used in a motion picture house, where there were no reserve seats, it is entirely impractical for reserve seat houses. Moreover, the formation of coupons at the side of the stub makes it diflicult to remove the coupons without tearing them, delays the collecting of the stubs, and what is equally important, such a ticket would not fit the ticket racks of the box offices of any of the theatres and to use such a ticket it would be necessary to provide new ticket racks wherever such a ticket was to be used.

The present invention, in contradistinction, obviates all these disadvantages and can be used in the present racks.

Features of the invention, other than those adverted to, will be apparent from the hereinafter detailed description and claims, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. I

The accompanying drawing illustrates one practical embodiment of the invention, but the construction therein shown is for the purpose of illustration, only, and does not define the limits of the invention.

The ticket shown in the drawings em bodies three distinct portions or sections designated 1, 2 and 3. The section 1 is a stub and the sections 2 and 3 are the cou- The part 2 is positioned at one end of the stub 1, and the coupon 3 is positioned at the corresponding end of the coupon 2.

Each of these sections have printed there on substantially the same subject matter, that is to say, each contains the name of the theatre, the date for which the ticket is issued, the seat number and the price. The

stub may contain additional data, such as government on the amusement tax.

the address of the theatre and a slogan or any other information, which it may be desired to print thereon. The stub 1 may, for

the purpose of description, be referred'to as the doormans stub, the section 2 may be referred to as the ushers coupon, and the section 3 as the patrons coupon. Between the rates them, drops the ushers coupons2 into a small box provided for the purpose, and returns the coupon 3 to the patron. In due course of business, the doormans boxes are sent to the accounting department'where they are opened and the stubs therein contained are carefully counted and checked up with the unsold tickets and cash receipts of the box ofiice. The ushers coupons are sent, with the unsold tickets, to the'owner for his check upon the employees of the theatre.

The use of the ticket of this invention permits of an absolute accurate accounting, eliminates the opportunity of employees to defraud the theatre management and government and does not in any way delay the entrance and seating of thepatrons. The ticket clearly difiers from all prior theatre tickets inasmuch as the coupons are both on one and the same end.

In employing the ticket of this invention, it is apparent that a doorman must return the coupons to the patron in order that the patron have a coupon to turn over to one of the ushers and consequently the doorman used over again as is now frequently done. It also prevents collusion between travelling managers and house treasurers, preventing cannot return the stubs to the box ofiice to be i them I from making false box ofiicefstatements without being detected. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost yearly by this method which is impossible when the ticket of the present invention is used.

Theatrical managers and owners have particularly been defrauded by collusion of employees as heretofore stated, and, more-- over, the defrauding of such persons'simultaneously brings about defrauding of the Producers and owners have for years sought to find some effective method or means for eliminating this leakage. Numerous mechanical devices have been suggested,.such as turnstiles and the like, but fire underwriters will not permit the use of suchdevices so that at the present time, the managements are continuing to use the old defective system, knowing it to be thoroughly lneffective and attempting to eliminate fraud as much as possible by the employment of spies, detectives and other human agencies. The present lnventlon entirely overcomes the possibility of fraud and placesrthe sale,

collection and accounting of tickets on an of material divided by two transverse lines of scoring into three distinct separable sections, positioned end to end, one end section being longer than the others and constituting the doormans stub, and the other two sections being positioned beyond one and the same end of the stub and constituting patrons and ushers coupons, and all of which sections are of the same width and contain the same date and seat number.

In testimony whereof I have signed the foregoing specification.

A reserve seat theatre ticketfor a single specified performance, comprising a strip HARRY 0. FOX. v 

